The Bali Police have arrested a suspect in connection with the murder of Anne Marie Drozdz, British woman who was found dead at a villa in Ubud, Bali, on Thursday afternoon.

In cooperation with the Jakarta Police, the Bali Police arrested 32-year-old Hambali, a native of Karawang, West Java, for his alleged involvement in the murder.

It was reported that Hambali was caught in his rented house in Pluit, Penjaringan, North Jakarta early on Saturday morning.

He was a construction worker at a project near the rented villa where the woman, believed to be in her late 40s, was staying and where she was found dead with multiple injuries to her body on Thursday.

“We will establish the motive behind the murder,” Benny said at the crime scene.

Initial enquiries showed the murder may have been linked to a robbery, he said, as police had found several objects missing from the villa.

Besides a cell phone and Rp 20 million (US$1,734) in cash, a motorcycle rented by the victim had also disappeared.

Police also found a rope in the villa that had allegedly been used to kill the victim.

While police had identified no further suspects as of Saturday, Benny said they were open to the possibility.

Benny attributed Hambali’s arrest to a good team of investigators. The police have already questioned 11 witnesses.

Earlier reports said Drozdz was found dead on Thursday afternoon inside her rented villa in Junjungan, a quiet neighborhood of upscale villas in scenic Ubud.

The incident shocked local residents, who had just celebrated the religious festival of Galungan.

Drozdz was found by her American friend who is also the husband of the villa’s owner, at around 4 p.m. in the afternoon. At that time he was bringing fresh towels into the villa when he saw its door was open and damaged.

He found Drozdz inside, lying on the floor with a black cloth covering her face. Police said the woman had stayed alone in the villa since early May.

Her body was taken to Sanglah Hospital, some 22 kilometers away in the island’s capital of Denpasar. An initial examination indicated she had been dead 12 to 24 hours before her body was discovered, Sanglah’s forensics facility coordinator Ida Bagus Putu Alit said.

The examination also found bruises on the woman’s body and a gash on her lips. The coroner is waiting for approval from the victim’s family or police before conducting a full autopsy.